Worthing: Metal detector set up at bar following knife crime

The “knife arch” was set up at Manuka Bar in Portland Road, Worthing, last Friday.

It comes following “several recent incidents” in the town centre including one incident earlier this month where three men were left with stab wounds.

The incident was said to have involved a “machete”.

A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said: “Following several recent incidents in Worthing town centre, officers set up a knife arch at Manuka Bar.

“We agreed with the Manuka team that walking through the metal detector would be a condition of entry for their customers on Friday night.

“We’re pleased to report that we didn’t detect or recover any weapons - but five searches did result in the seizure of drugs. Officers engaged with more than 450 members of the public during the evening.

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“The activity was part of Op Valley, our summer crackdown on knife crime and serious violence. We will be continuing to use knife arches across Sussex in the coming weeks to disrupt and prosecute offenders.”

Worthing has been riddled with knife crime in recent months.

Six people were arrested by police after a man was “stabbed in the head” in Wallace Avenue on March 27 this year.

In a separate incident outside McDonald’s in Liverpool Road, a 16-year-old boy was stabbed on February 13.

Police outside McDonald's in February this year (Image: Sussex News and Pictures)

He was said to have lost a kidney. A 16-year-old boy pleaded not guilty to wounding with intent at Hove Crown Court on March 29.

Last October, a 14-year-old boy was jailed after stabbing a 13-year-old boy outside the same McDonald’s in March 2022.

In February, a man was jailed for stabbing a homeless man in the head with a glass bottle in Montague Street in the town centre.

The Argus exclusively investigated a spate of crime in the town, including a 14-year-old boy who swung a kitchen knife at a shopworker in August last year. He walked away with an electronic and £22 victim surcharge from the courts.